


Cut Off the Head

by phoenixyfriend



Category: Avengers: Infinity War - Fandom, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Body Horror, Gen, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-05-05 02:07:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14606862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixyfriend/pseuds/phoenixyfriend
Summary: In another universe, Tony played the long con with a single idea in the heat of battle.





	Cut Off the Head

In another universe, Tony had a plan. It wasn't a good plan. It was a plan that relied on a lot of things that he had no way of ensuring. It was a plan that he told nobody about, because it was false hope at best.

It was a miracle it worked. It was a miracle Tony ever broke through the skin. It was a miracle his nanobots were strong enough.

It was a miracle he survived.

With every punch, Thanos broke off more of his nanobots, but he survived. With every punch, Thanos made it harder to figure out for himself what was going on. With every punch, Thanos pushed Tony closer to death.

With every punch, Tony left behind nanobots. With every punch, Tony tried harder to break the skin. With every punch, Tony formulated a Trojan Horse and hoped beyond hope that it would work.

There are nanobots, after the end of everything, after all the death. There are nanobots, under Thanos's skin, in his blood, in his brain. There are nanobots collecting trace amounts of iron and building more of themselves, bit by bit.

There is a small, growing army inside of Thanos, one he doesn't know is there, one he doesn't know to be scared of.

Tony still doesn't know if it's going to work. He doesn't tell Nebula, trapped with him on this planet. He doesn't tell Bruce or Rhodey or Steve, when he gets back to Earth. He never told Strange in the first place.

But light years away, so far that he can't be sure he'll ever find his way there again, the nanobots swim in Thanos's bloodstream.

They build their ranks, and they attack his brain.

They block off the blood.

They cut through the spine.

They dig into the grey matter that makes up everything Thanos is.

Light years away, Thanos dies, because one mortal man was very, very,  _very_ clever.

(Tony doesn't find out it worked until Nebula leads them to Thanos and they find a half-rotten corpse with a gauntlet on its hand.)

(The nanobots form a shield around the gauntlet, an invisible cloud that attacks and blocks everyone who approaches except for Tony himself.)

(He brings back everyone who died at Thanos's hands.)

(He brings the Gauntlet to Wanda.)

(He does not bring the Universe to its knees.)

(When she asks him to bring back Vision, he does so. He offers to bring back Pietro, and she nearly cries.)

(But that is enough bending of the laws of reality.)

(He asks her to destroy the stones, and she does.)

(It takes days for Tony to find that the nanobots are now in his own blood, building an army, protecting him.)

(It takes years to find that they collected the trace parts of the infinity stones and put them inside him.)

(He always knew he was going to become a living relic, one day.)

**Author's Note:**

> I've been wondering about nanobot warfare since I saw the movie.


End file.
